'At the First Sight of a Dictator the African Union Loses Its Backbone'

The African Union claims to promote peace, security and stability, but as its continue their usual prevarication on recent upheavals and conflicts across the continent, these values seem forgotten. Take Burundi, for example. As president Pierre Nkurunziza defies the country’s constitution and clings to power, the African Union has largely remained quiet or flip-flopped on the issue, even as the country plummeted into chaos as a result, leaving more than 20 people dead and scores of others injured and displaced. The AU’s limp-wristed response to Nkurunziza’s actions may be because it lacks the moral authority to act given that in January it appointed 91-year-old ruler of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe to lead it.